Toll barriers removed at M25 bottleneck — but not the fee

Barriers at the Dartford Crossing were due to be torn out this morning

Dominic Tobin

Sunday November 30 2014, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

AT 6am today, barriers were due to be torn out at one of Britain’s most notorious bottlenecks, allowing traffic to flow freely for the first time in 51 years.

The Dartford Crossing, which links the M25 between Essex and Kent, is the first toll crossing in Britain to replace barriers with automatic numberplate recognition cameras, which record the registration number of every vehicle that crosses the bridge, so owners can be tracked if they don’t pay.

Drivers will save up to nine minutes per journey when the last booths are removed and the road layout is finalised next spring.

Sanef, a French company with experience of autoroute tolls, has designed the software. Regular users of the Dartford Crossing can set up an account, enabling tolls